The Road to Year 2020
Submitted by Marie on 22 April, 2008 - 12:02.
Are you still there? If you are, thanks for hanging in there :)
I don't want to talk too much about politics, but it's essential that I give you a bit of background for this post. In November 2007 last year, Australia had a change of government. We recently had a new prime minister and political party voted in after 11 years with the same government. Our new prime minister's name is Mr Kevin Rudd (yeh, that's his pic on this post). He is also one of the few leaders in the world that can also speak fluent Chinese (mandarin).
A few months ago, Mr Rudd and his party announced a plan to have a two-day Australia 2020 summit. He had invited 1000 of Australia's best 'think tank' or experts in their particular fields. It would bring together the most talented people (those that are not in government) to help look beyond the usual political views of government and policy making. The purpose was to come up with policies to help meet the challenges Australia faced over the next decade and beyond.
The concept was for these selected group of people to voice their opinion and come up with the best ideas that could help move Australia forward, to be more innovative, competitive on the world stage and generally map out a strategy for Australia's long-term future in areas ranging from the economy, health, education, environment and climate change, to the creative arts. Even Cate Blanchett and Hugh Jackman were invited to contribute their thoughts and ideas for the creative and performing arts.
The 2020 summit was completed last weekend and was received successfully by the majority of people (I say majority, because you can't please everyone!). As a result of this summit, it got me thinking. At Vivid Lamp, we love to hear about innovative ideas, particularly about ideas that spread (see our motto above?).
This is where YOU come in.
Give this question some thought. In your area of expertise (you can be a lawyer, gardener, teacher, nurse or a mum/dad at home raising your child - everyone I believe has some expertise in something, so really think hard now...)
"What idea/s do you have, that you think would really help your community or country so it can be the best in the world?"
For me personally, a community/country where it's people are healthy and educated, promotes innovation and productivity for your economy. As everyone knows a good economy will in turn benefit the people living within that community/country. More importantly, when people are well educated, it will also reduce corruption and make those in management/government accountable for their actions. I strongly believe access to a good education and an affordable health care system is crucial to any community/country.
I also remembered, whatever happened to that car that was supposed to run on good old H2O (water)? Wouldn't this be great, if a car could run on water? With the high price of petrol/gas and with less impact on the environment, I'll have one of these cars any day! Have you come up with your great idea/s yet?
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This is a very interesting topic Marie. I live in a country where poverty is rampant and governed by greedy politicians. They keep fighting for power and their position in the government without thinking of the consequences. They use the poor to fight for their cause which only benefits them in the end. I think that education and awareness is as important as having a full stomach. I am a supporter of a non government organization which aims to educate not only children but adults who are willing to learn (because we cannot wait for the young ones to grow up and change things around here, we need the change now as soon as possible). With the elections here coming in a few years, a major change in our government is badly needed and spreading awareness and educating people through whatever means of medium is very important. We are slowly getting there but there still so much to do. I also think that support from each other is important. In order for a community to function well, no matter how small or big, support is always an essential factor. Start by supporting yourself then your family. A family can support another family (or group of people) which will grow into a community (or an entire country) supporting each other (in terms of products, technology, inventions etc). It’s basically about loving your own then spreading the love.
My country (Philippines) is separated by more than seven thousand islands so reaching out to people is no easy task especially to the most remote places where there is no electricity and decent roads and populated by rebels. There is so much more I can say about this topic but it would seem that I am taking a lot of space for a comment. I apologize for the long comment and for babbling too much.
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Submitted by Louie (not verified) on 22 April, 2008 - 16:55.The summit was an interesting concept. My main reservation about it beforehand was that most of the attendees were the "usual suspects" who get to have input to, and influence, government decision making anyway. However, I've been out of Australia the last week and a bit so haven't really seen much of what the take-aways for the government were. It will be most interesting to see how the government responds, particularly to initiatives that might be worthwhile, but which are not things that were already government policy, or similar to it. I will take a closer look at the reports on the summit when I get home next week.
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Submitted by Ian (not verified) on 22 April, 2008 - 22:43.First of all let me just say, that when I initially thought of posting about this topic, I had some reservations as to whether our visitors would actually respond. I thought this topic might be a bit too serious and boring for the majority of people, so I resigned to myself that I would be happy even to get 1 or 2 good feedback in return.
Louie and Ian thank you both for taking the time to read the post and for sharing your thoughts :)
I guess this post will also allow me to better understand our visitors more closely and the opportunity to find out who are introspective, thoughtful, worldly and can rise to the challenge of this question.
What people may not know, is that this post is also the foundation to an exciting plan we will be announcing this coming weekend...
@Louie - Your honest response is greatly appreciated. I can hear the passion and sadness in your answer. It is difficult to live in a country governed by corruption and greed. It restricts people's opportunities and the potential to be the best that they can be, so that in turn they can then give back to the community many times over.
A good network of support systems is key to bringing communities closer together.
Louie I hope that the strategies in place to educate the children and adults will continue to grow and lead to a brighter (and less corrupt) future for the Philippines :)
@Ian - Some critics have called this summit a talk-fest or Rudd-fest, but it's great to see this government trying out new things and promoting people outside of government to put forward their ideas. Mr Rudd has been quoted as saying (re:summit), that "I have a simple view: without vision, the people do perish".
A quick and brief run down of the areas people wanted to change: tax reform, putting the republic debate back on the agenda, scrapping the states, a complete ban on smoking and an indigenous treaty to be setup; plus lots more...have a safe trip back home to oz.
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Submitted by Marie on 23 April, 2008 - 09:52.Post new comment